Quick, everybody post whatever you want!
The religious Jews are off till Sunday!
Hello fellow electronics-users! Happy Good Friday, mid-Passover, or just a good old fashioned top of the TGIF to ya! All the Orthos are offline, so this is the time to fill up the comments with stuff about sex, bacon, and breadcrumbs.
We are fresh off a friends-filled Seder in NYC with some of your favorite AAJ guests, future guests, and one adorable gentile baby who narrowly avoided sacrifice to our gods. My parents are in town from Israel (hi it’s Yael btw) so they conducted the Seder, which consisted mostly of stories about Ethiopian Jews, Louis Armstrong Youtube videos, and some tipsy, awkward singing. It was the very first Seder for a few of our guest, and hopefuly they won’t be disappointed if they ever get to attend a real one.
Oh, and
found the Afikoman!More important than our 3-thousand-year tradition (had to Google that timeline), this week we go to speak with our favorite prophet, Eli Lake!
Eli is our first non-Rabbi returning guest, and we covered 40-years-in-the-desert worth of ground, including but not limited to:
A post-Kanye world.
Eli’s excellent Iraq piece in Commentary Magazine.
Should Israel and America start seeing other people?
Remember Ukraine? What’s up with them lately?
Is Israel the Nickelback of countries?
Oh, lots of Passover talk, ten plagues etc. etc.
Eli’s woke Seder (they only eat oranges the entire meal….j/k)
Banana Bread and Birthright.
Alvin Bragg and Trump (we are legally required by the Global Association of Podcasters to discuss it)
And much much more…
In case you missed it because you were busy burning down your house for Passover, we were back on
this week! This is part of our settlement with Meghan that requires her to have us on for every major Jewish holiday (the lawsuit was back when we thought she was Maureen Dowd though). You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts (like here), but a full version is available on Meghan's Substack for special friends.Comments? Concerns? 4 questions or more? Fill up the space below.
Enjoyed the conversation with Eli. Especially the part in regard to the proposed judicial overhaul and subsequent reaction from Israeli citizens. I think everyone on the podcast did a very nice job explaining the situation.
For the most part, I admire the way Israelis handled their protests - in opposition to what we are witnessing in France now and in the US in 2020. (If I was ever hired as a consultant to the American Left, my first recommendation is to have someone - anyone! - carry a US flag for god's sake at a protest).
However, some of the statements where people threaten to leave Israel due to the overhaul is pretty ridiculous. As you mentioned on the podcast, there is a consensus that Israel's judiciary has more power than the average nations' courts. And, the lack of right that elected officials have to appoint judges is pretty unprecedented.
As ChayaLeah aptly stated, elections have consequences. And, rather than threatening to leave the country or to pull money out of the nation, do better in future elections. Each time I read this threat,
I visualize a whiny American living in Santa Monica or Berkley after Trump won.
Happy Pesach!
Me again 🙈 my friend sent me this article about Columbia University professors protesting a new center the school is opening in Tel Aviv https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/nyregion/columbia-university-tel-aviv-campus.html
Gotta love it when Rashid Khalidi gives up the game:
“Mr. Khalidi said human rights and academic freedom should guide the university’s approach to overseas facilities, no matter their host country.
‘There are problems in other places where Columbia has global centers,’ he said, citing China, Turkey and Jordan. ‘Those considerations may not have been thought about before the other centers were established, but if we establish a new one, then we have a chance now to think about those things.’”